


The First Post

by MEIXIU



Series: The Time(s) The Internet Collectively Exploded Instagram Posts [1]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Fluff, Instagram Photos, M/M, Subtly Pining!Victor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2016-12-23
Packaged: 2018-09-09 09:57:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8886511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MEIXIU/pseuds/MEIXIU
Summary: "The other photo showed the Japanese skater, now sporting a much leaner, firmer figure than from what he looked like in the previous month, posing in a form as if he had just landed a jump with his arms poised and free leg perfectly pointed as he stood on the smooth ice. The caption on that was simply a smiling emoji, accompanied with #proud #YuuriKatsuki."





	

**Author's Note:**

> Set in Episode 2. Written mostly in Victor's point of view.

Apart from figure skating, Victor Nikiforov was a very strict man when it comes to the discipline of exercise. After all, he did not have the well-sculpted body that he had now by lounging about like what Yuuri Katsuki has been doing in the four months they haven't seen each other. He may have managed to skate Victor's gold winning Free Program while he was overweight but Victor was sure that he wasn't going to be able to do it again if he were still the same size as he was then and in front of a stadium full of people.

He put Yuuri through the most intense training regimen that he could plan out without hurting the boy too much in the process. The presence of Minako Okukawa helps too, as between running laps around the seaside town of Hasetsu with Victor on a bike and core strengthening at the gym alone, Yuuri took ballet with her overseeing his progress.

So, in a matter of weeks, Yuuri was starting to look less piggy and more like the man who beat Yuri Plisetsky at break-dancing, pole danced with Christophe Giaocometti and danced the Paso Doble _and_ the Flamenco with him, Victor Nikiforov, at the Sochi Grand Prix Finals Closing Banquet, even while he was dead drunk. There was still a few more weeks of training to go, however, before he'll be in tip-top shape, as he was still soft in several places. 

Not that Victor really minds whatever size Yuuri was but the Japanese man wouldn't be fit to figure skate competitively should he not tone up. 

At the moment, Victor was watching Yuuri with Minako beside him on a small bench at Minako's ballet studio on a non-descript day in May. Yuuri was too distracted with his current routine to notice their leering as he was currently in the middle of the _Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy_ routine from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker. It wasn't perfect, of course, but he was in time with the music and did as what follows with the routine. He was no prima ballerina but he had the potential to be a danseur, should he have not pursued figure skating entirely. 

" _Keep your free leg pointed, Yuuri!_ " Minako commanded in Japanese. 

" _Yes!_ " He automatically responded in the same language and delivered on Minako's request, continuing his routine without missing a beat. Victor understood Yuuri's reply and somewhat understood Minako's words, based from Yuuri's reaction. 

He'll put a reminder on his phone to buy a Japanese-to-Russian dictionary if there was time in-between their workout training. 

"Why _Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy_?" Victor asks suddenly. 

Minako turned her gaze away from Yuuri to glance over at Victor. "Hm? Oh, well, Yuuri wanted a high-intensity routine to burn off as much calories and practice his free leg as much as he can. I would have given him _The Dying Swan_ but that's just ridiculous since he's not trained for that so, I gave him this routine."

"I see. He is quite determined." Victor notes, a small smile gracing his lips. "He hasn't complained once with the kind of training we've put him in. If he were someone else I know back in Russia, he'd try to have me skinned alive and lynched for putting them through this level of what he says is torture." Victor elaborates says quite cheerfully. Minako fixes him a look before trying to piece together a cohesive sentence to rebut to his statement. 

"Yuuri thrives on hardwork and dedication. That what he's always done to reach the point that he wants to be at." Minako says. Victor nods and shifts his gaze to look at the woman beside him from the corner of his eye. She's so young looking, Victor notes, it was hard to believe that she was older than Yuuri's mother who was in her mid-fourties, at the very least. She also seems so close to Yuuri and Yuuri was a lot more comfortable being around her than with him.

Maybe Yuuri has a thing for cougars, Victor thought wildly. Another part of his mind, however - the part that he'd rather listen to at the moment - told him that they knew each other much longer than Victor has with Yuuri so their fondness for each other was strengthened by the test of time. 

And isn't that damn intimidating?

Victor returns his gaze to look at Yuuri, who was now in the middle of a _cabriole_. The two watch in silence from then on until Yuuri completed the routine, standing still now in the final pose of the Sugar Plum Princess with his arms outstretched over his head with his fingers pointed with practice grace, one foot flat on the floor while the other was pointed at the back. His black hair flat against his forehead and his mouth was slightly agape as he gasped for air. His cheeks were tinted red from the effort of his exercise. Minako gave a short round of applause, shooting Yuuri with a fond smile before she got to her feet and threw his water canister towards him. Yuuri catches it and thanks Minako with a grateful smile. Yuuri doesn't sit down immediately, opting to pace slowly across the floor to keep his heart racing. 

"Yuuri," Victor calls out and Yuuri immediately turns his gaze to face him. 

"Yes?" He asks. How adorable, Victor thinks. He can practically see the sparkle in his eyes, even when they weren't framed by his eyeglasses. 

"After this, we'll go to the park and run laps."

"Alright." He nods. Minako nods but then starts to give her lecture in Japanese to her danseur. Yuuri drinks it all in, nodding and shaking his head at certain moments. When she finishes, Minako smiles fondly at him and runs his hand through his hair and ruffling it a bit. Yuuri laughs and then tugs her hand away in protest. He then excuses himself and heads on over to the changing rooms to change out of his sweat-drenched outfit.  

"What were you saying to him?" Victor asks casually, trying to keep the jealous edge away from his tone. Yuuri hasn't even allowed him to get within arms length of him, no matter how much Victor turns on the charm. 

"Hm? Oh, just that he needed to work on his free leg when he's doing an _arabasque_ , his _assemblé_ is kind of wobbly and to mind his hand gestures." Minako supplied, shrugging her shoulders. She doesn't seem to notice anything off about how he spoke, which Victor was thankful for.

"Anyways, I'll be off. I need to go head off to my other business." She saunters off towards the coat rack where she retrieves her pink cardigan from the hook and slips it on. She lets down her hair and then walks towards the shoe rack, grabbing her boots and dropping them to the floor for her to slip on. 

"Yuuri!" Minako calls out loud. Yuuri's acknowledging reply was audible from where they were.  "Lock up for me, okay? I have errands to run!"

"Alright!" Yuuri calls after her, his head poking out from the doorway and a glimpse of his naked torso can be seen from where Victor was sitting at. "Take care!"

Minako slips on her jacket, slips in her heeled boots and heads out of the door after waving at Victor. Yuuri returns sometime later to the dance studio hall, now dressed in a white shirt, black jogging pants that was rolled up slightly, blue tracksuit jacket and his glasses framing his chocolate brown eyes. Victor get to his feet and they both exit the Minako's ballet studio, Yuuri fishing out a ring of keys from the pocket of his tracksuit jacket and locking it as he promised.

They stop by Yu-Topia to get Makkachin and Yuuri jogs after Victor with Makkachin at his tail as they make their way to the park just behind Hasetsu Castle. Victor goes up first and Yuuri runs laps up and down the staircase twice while Victor stands by at the very top, overseeing his progress while Makkachin runs around, chasing butterflies nearby. Once he was done with his two laps, Yuuri catches his breath and rehydrates before he goes over a nearby park bench, practing balance exercises with one foot on the surface of the bench while his free leg was loose on the side. He jumps with the foot on the bench while lifting his free leg upwards and repeating the motion as much as he can endure it. He went at it for five minutes, his back turned from Victor, giving the silver-haired man enough opportunity to leer at his protégé.

Victor relaxes his position, resting his palms on the surface of the bench and observes the quiet determination that is reflected in the younger man's eyes. He had had tied up his tracksuit jacket around his hips and his glasses were slightly foggy, possibly from the moisture and heat that accumulated in the space between his eyes and the glass lenses. 

"Yuuri, do you have feelings for Minako?" Victor suddenly asks, keeping his voice even and casual. 

That threw Yuuri off a loop that he immediately crouched down and denied it, his arms flailing about and his cheeks dusting pink, possibly from the effort of his workout and from the embarrassment he felt from the question. Whew. So he doesn't like cougars, Victor thought in relief. 

"Do you have any lovers?" Victor presses on, an eager grin gracing his lips. 

"No..." He eyes Victor warily this time. 

"Any _ex_ -lovers?" This was getting exciting. We're getting somewhere, he thinks. 

"N-No comment." It doesn't take a genius to know that what he really means is  _no_. Perfect, thought Victor. 

"Let's talk about me then!" This was my chance, Victor thought. He leans forwards, now just inches away from Yuuri. "You see, my first lover - " that would be _you_ , he would have said, had it not been for the completely flustered Yuuri yelling out, 

" _ **Stop!**_ " in his accented English. Victor pulls back and lets out a tired sigh, props his elbows on his lap and rests his chin on his hands. There was a few moments of nothing but awkward silence between them. Victor can tell that Yuuri was looking at him from the corner of his eye. Before Victor can say anything, Makkachin was barking at something and the two of them glanced over their shoulders to look at what Makkachin was interested on. 

Victor didn't see it as he was immediately distracted by the towering white castle that protruded from the towering trees around the small park. 

"What's that castle over there, Yuuri?" He asked. He never noticed a structure as big as that was before. His eyes always seemed to be trailed to Yuuri's form, whether it be his face, his body, his plump lips - 

"Oh, That's Hasetsu Castle. Ninjas live inside there."

Wait, _what_? "Really? Ninjas?!" Victor was surprised at how much of an excited kid he just founded just now. 

Training stopped immediately. He needed that Instagram photo _**now**_. 

* * *

Later that same day, sometime after lunch, the two of them headed off to Ice Castle. They stretched for five minutes in the locker rooms and did fifteen-minute warm-ups on the ice before they practiced on their jumps. 

From what Victor observes, Yuuri had quite a repertoire of jumps he was actually capable of landing, save for the Quad Axel as that move has never been landed in any major competition before and Victor's signature quadruple flip. From what Victor keeps hearing about him, Yuuri Katsuki _was_ a talented, technically proficient figure skater by his own rights but his crippling stage fright leads him to do very poorly during his routines. He's seen recordings of Yuuri's Lohengrin performance from his last season. Aside from his jumps, as those were just disasters, his artistic step sequence and graceful spins were mesmerizing to watch. 

However, in the world of figure skating, pretty step sequences and spins can only get you so far into a competition. Victor muses that if Yuuri was going to win any competitions with that kind of anxiety, they'll have to ask even the audience and the judges to look away from him while he's performing. 

Victor observes this firsthand when he wasn't at rink-side as he was retrieving towels and water for Yuuri with Yuuko Nishigori, a young woman in her mid-twenties who was two years Yuuri's senior and was actually a good figure skater but never competed locally or even internationally. Victor wasn't too scared of her and Yuuri's closeness when he found out about her happy marriage. Just as they were entering the rink hall, he and Yuuko witnessed Yuuri land a Quad-Triple Toe loop combination after he had just finished an impromptu serpentine step sequence to whatever music his mind was supplying and he did it _flawlessly_ ; showing the same grace and finesse that Victor saw when he saw his routine being played on his tiny phone screen. 

Yuuri's expression seemed a great deal calmer too, now that he knows that he, Victor, wasn't keeping a critical eye on him and was left to his own devices. Earlier, his brows were furrowed and he wasn't landing anything but the floor itself. 

"Yuuri is always like this when he's alone. He does so well when no one is looking but as soon as someone does, he lets the pressure of their expectations get to him." Yuuko notes with a wary sigh. "Well, I was there when he performed your free skate that night but he trusts me enough that he won't take any criticisms from me to heart if he performs anything else. Everyone else, though..."

"Is that so..." Victor mutters. On second thought, he'll still have to watch out for her. 

"Yuuri!" Victor calls out enthusiastically, not really realizing that Yuuri was in the middle of a jump - and if him kicking off with his toe pick was any indication, it seems to be a flip - and him suddenly calling him out caused him to flail midair and crash into the ice, sliding close to the concrete boards. Victor and Yuuko immediately went to the rink side to see if he was alright. Yuuri was quick to get back to his feet but he winces as he rubs his hipbone. He skates towards the rink entrance and slips his skate guards over his blades and meets with the odd duo at where they were standing at. 

"Are you okay, Yuuri?" Yuuko asks. 

"I'm okay, Yuu-chan." Yuuri replies with a wary yet still reassuring smile. "S-Sorry that you had to see that." He directed his gaze to Victor's general direction but he didn't meet Victor's eyes. 

"Is your performance anxiety that bad that you can't even land jumps when I'm around?" Victor jokes and Yuuri visibly flinches. 

"I didn't know my presence was that unwelcome-" Victor began but Yuuri flails his arms about and immediately rejects the very idea, sounding quite appalled that Victor even mentions it. Victor smiles all-businesslike at him but inside, he was feeling giddy.

"Well, Yuuri, that won't get you anywhere. If you managed to get into the Grand Prix Finals once then you _can_ perform in front of a crowd." Victor reminds him and Yuuri nods slowly. "You just have to have more confidence in yourself." 

Yuuri looks down at his feet and twiddles his thumbs. "...Easier said than done." 

"Well, you certainly have me working hard." Victor muses. "For now, we'll stick to jumping. Focus on starting from singles and escalate to quads later. We'll start with toe loops, then with flips and then we'll start working on Axels at a spread eagle entry." He hands Yuuri a bottle of water and then the towel, which he takes.

"I'll meet you in the ice in five minutes." Victor informs him and passes Yuuri by on his way to the rink entrance. 

From the ice, Victor watches as Yuuri talks with Yuuko about something in Japanese. Something she had said made him blush to the tips of his hair and his ears and his voice raises an octave yet cracks at several places when he tries to rebut to whatever she just said. The woman just laughs harder and pats him affectionately on the cheek before she excuses herself with a small bow to Victor and walks off back to the lobby. 

When Yuuri returns to the ice, he was grumbling something in his native tongue that completely flies over Victor's head. He curses their language barrier. 

"What were you two talking about?" Victor asks, trying to sound playful and tried to brace himself for whatever it might be. 

Yuuri shook his head, the blush returning slightly to his cheeks but not as violently as it was from earlier. "S-She's just teasing me. It's not important. Anyways, I'll start with toe loops, right?"

As Yuuri practices his jumps, Victor busies himself by practicing step sequences, sneaking glances at Yuuri as he practices single toe loop jumps on the other side of the rink. They practiced until late in to the afternoon, just as the sun was starting to set. Yuuri's stamina seemed to be bottomless. While Victor felt like he was about to cough up his lungs from the four hours they spent just practicing (though he's trying his damn best not to show it outwardly), Yuuri was still skating across the ice, perfecting his triple axel out of a spread eagle entry. 

Victor was already off the ice and was about to tell Yuuri that practice was over when he saw the calm determination on his face as he was beginning to move his legs for the entry. He fishes out his phone, careful to not let Yuuri see it lest he gets startled again. 

Yuuri takes off forwards, looks over his shoulder and kicks off with his left blade on the outside edge, makes the three revolutions, and lands with his right leg on the outside edge, his free leg posted perfectly, his arms and fingers pointed with a flourish. Victor manages to take the precise moment that he slides across the ice after landing the jump, the weak sunlight shining through the windows giving the skater an almost ethereal glow that no filter can ever top. 

With a proud smile, Victor posts it on Instagram. 

Come next morning and the media had caught on to his location and immediately stormed Yuuri's place of residence and Hasetsu Ice Castle. 


End file.
